As a girl in Shanghai, China, Nancy Bjorge kept her fingers busy folding tiny paper boats. The shapes signified ingots, she says, and her grandmother pressed her to produce them by the hundreds.

Origami is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. One uncut square of paper can, in the hands of an origami artist, be folded into a bird, a frog, a sailboat, or a Japanese samurai helmet beetle.

Save this article to read it later. Find this story in your account’s ‘Saved for Later’ section. Now that we’re all spending a lot more time at home, it’s a good time to pick up a new craft, whether ...